Today, Tecno held the 5th edition of the Tecno Future Lens event, which aims to introduce the company’s imaging innovations to the media. The highlights this year are Dual-Mirror Reflect Telephoto and Freeform Continuum Telephoto.
Freeform Continuum Telephoto is what it sounds like – a single periscope with smooth, continuous zoom. Tecno has created a design that covers the 1x to 9x range.
That means that there is no need for a separate telephoto camera – this module serves as the main camera (at 1x) and then zooms in further than most fixed focal length telephoto modules that we have today.
There are other advantages too – some phones have a noticeable “jump” as digital zoom switches from one camera to another. Makers also have trouble with getting the same color rendering out of different cameras, so sometimes there is a noticeable shift in hues as the phone switches between cameras.
Having one camera that does it all eliminates those issues – and it creates a higher quality image at intermediate steps than digital zoom, of course.
The Dual-Mirror Reflect Telephoto is an interesting design – it is 50% smaller than traditional lens-based telephoto modules. This one obviously uses two mirrors to focus light, not just lenses. Tecno also mentions the distinctive donut-shaped bokeh effects that this creates.
This sounds a lot like the so-called mirror lenses that have been available for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras for a long time. They pack a lot of focal length into a relatively compact body and are quite light too. As for the bokeh, some see it as a disadvantage, others as something unique (it’s sometimes called “iris blur”). By the way, this design is effectively a tiny catadioptric telescope:
A bigger potential issue is that the Dual-Mirror Reflect Telephoto module loses 1 stop of light. This technology is ready to go and Tecno expects to have it in phones as early as next year (that is if the design gets the nod from focus groups).
As for the Freeform Continuum Telephoto, it is the more complex design and so it is still under development. It will be at least a year before we see it commercialized. Tecno has selected the manufacturing partners for these lenses – Samsung and Largan.
Tecno also continues to develop what it calls the Tecno Image Matrix or “TIM” for short. It’s an end-to-end technology stack consisting of four layers, each with different components. Here’s the high-level overview:
“We’re transitioning from simply capturing light to intelligently understanding scenes. Our systems now analyze composition intent, subject characteristics, and even emotional tone to deliver images that are both technically precise and emotionally resonant. This represents the next frontier where computational photography meets creative empowerment,” explains Xiaohan Huang, Director of Tecno’s Image R&D Center.
The videos below offer more details and a better look at the Freeform Continuum Telephoto and Dual-Mirror Reflect Telephoto modules:
